2. Cubase (and many other software based daw’s like Logic etc) has a billion more features. I’m not kidding. A billion. Protools is so feature-less it is amazing people pay for it. For instance, if you want a good four band parametric on a channel in protools, you have to BUY one for hundreds of dollars, which will likely work on only one to four channels, if that. Cubase comes WITH a four band parametric for every channel, and could run hundreds of them at a time if you have enough computer processor power.  The same applies with other types of inserts on a channel, like compressors, gates etc.

3. Commercial plugins (effects, compressors etc), cost more for protools, because you’re so cool being a protools owner that you want to pay more for everything.  Case in point, a VST plugin reverb I bought for Cubase at $200 sold the Protools version for $500.

4. You are committed to Digidesign’s hardware, which can’t even record at 32 bit.  That blows.  But hey, if you own protools, you are cool.  It doesn’t matter if you have 10X the dynamic range on systems which cost thousands less.  You just want to be cool.

5. Cubase can use any of hundreds of hardware devices, and records at 32 bit.  Know how hard it is to clip a 32 bit system?  A hell of a lot harder than it is to clip a Protools system.

6. Protools tech support sucks worse that a $20 hooker.

7. Protools thinks it “owns” every hard drive you connect to your computer, and insists that it “mark its territory” by putting a bunch of files on them, even if you have no intention of using protools on that drive.  And it bugs the crap out of me when running protools that I have to use Protools to eject a damn drive, not the computer’s own operating system.  What’s next?  I have to use Protools to flush the toilet in the studio?

8. Midi on protools is so limited and crappy, that it may not even be better than the midi implementation of a Commodore 64 from 1983, while Cubase’s midi is outstanding.  Don’t believe me?  Well just find out what sort of HELL you’ll go through working with Midi and buy a PT system.  You’ll come crying back to me later.

9. Cubase can output sheet music from midi you play in. Protools couldn’t do that in a million years.

10. When you pay your billion dollars for protools, upgrading is SO fun!  Like when my buddy bought a $15,000 system, and then couldn’t update it when they came out with a new version two weeks later unless he forked out another $5,000! Yeah baby. Protools is SO cool!  My last Cubase update, from version 2 to version 4 (a large upgrade) cost me $249.

This really sucks.  Let’s say you need to delete 10, 100, 1000, or even 2800 markers from a project like I had to once.  That means individually selecting 2800 markers then pulling down a menu 2800 times?  No f’n way!  That is at least 5800 mouse clicks and a case of tedinitis waiting to happen.

To be clear, there is a “clear all markers” in ProTools.  But in this particular project I had over 3000 markers, 2800 of which needed to be deleted.

I’ve got the book edited and now I need to get rid of most of the 3000 markers and put new ones in. So about 2800 of the markers need to be deleted. Should be easy, right? Just select a marker, hold down the shift key, then select the end of the group you want to delete….right? WRONG.  Click and hold your mouse, then drag across the markers then?  NO.  You can’t select multiple markers in ProTools. You can delete ALL the markers, but you can’t say select 30 of them and delete them, leaving the rest.

I have the choice of deleting all 3000 markers, and losing the 200 I want to keep. Or I can delete 2800 markers, one at a time. Oh you can’t just hit the delete key when you have a marker selected either. You have to select the marker, then use a pull down menu to select “clear marker.” This process would take me close to 10,000 mouse clicks on this project. Is digidesign willing to pay my doctor bill for ligament damage which I’ll incur from clicking my mouse so many times?

See Why ProTools Sucks #9…

Say you find a plug for VST or other systems which runs around $200.
The same exact TDM plug for ProDrools would cost about $500.

Do you have any idea how much of a headroom difference there is between 24-bit and 32-bit recording? It’s huge.

Steinberg’s Cubase and Nuendo can record 32-bit and they cost from $199-$2,000.
ProTools maxes out at 24-bit and can cost tens of thousands of $$$.

Reason #6 ProTools sucks? The cost per bit!

This function is a time saver, especially if you deal with a lot of files. In ProDrools, this doesn’t happen. Tab does nothing. But ProTools isn’t about saving time, it’s about taking MORE time, so your big expensive studio can bill your client more hours and make more money, thus helping you afford your overpriced recording system.

Let’s say you’re working in a ProTools project and your daughter comes in and needs you to print something off of some flash drive or portable drive she brought in from a computer at school or something. You leave the PT environment and print the document. Then you try to eject the drive, but you can’t. It’s in use by ProTools. You then have to go into ProDrools, go to the “workspace” drop down menu, and then select about the 50th menu selection down called “unmount.”

Upon inspection of this drive you had to “unmount” there is a new folder on there called “Digidesign Databases.” I didn’t f’ing ask ProDrools to put a damn thing on this drive. I didn’t tell ProDrools that this drive was going to ever be used for any sort of project.

ProTools owns every drive you hook up to your system while it is running, whether you want it to or not.  And that is another reason ProTools sucks.

The setup went fairly well with a few problems due to the drummer.

First the drummer was late because his dog was “pissing diarrhea blood out it’s ass” and his wife was puking because she was pregnant and couldn’t smell it. Man I couldn’t imagine the hell that guy is going through (not with the dog, with having a pregnant wife).

2nd the drummer’s setup is enormous. He must have literally 20 cymbals. Don’t forget the rototoms and octobans. His kit is so tightly set up, there’s almost nowhere to get the mics into place. Before he could set his kit up he had to vacuum his carpet (see picture)! Believe it or not, that’s happened more times than I can count. Anal drummers… Can’t live with them, can’t kill them.

I haven’t worked in this studio for a few months. It was an experience for me trying to remember how the studio’s patching from room to room was setup, along with remembering the basic functions of the Euphonix console. The main owner/engineer was there to help, which was very good.

One of the tasks before we can record was to figure out how to get all the keyboard tracks into ProTools (or ProDrools as I prefer to call it). The keyboard player, bless his heart, doesn’t know much about what he’s doing. He didn’t even know what or if he had an audio interface with his Apple Logic Express system. He didn’t.

When importing the midi files, the individual takes or chunks were all broken up into separate tracks by ProDrools. I figured that I had to use a merge function in logic to merge each track individually first, before importing into PT. I’m not sure if Cubase is the same, but maybe that’s an entry #3 for my section called “why protools sucks.”

The setup took almost 6 hours, protools issues and drummers included. Tomorrow we start at high noon with the tracking of drums and bass. Noon is pretty late for me. The guys in the band have been complaining a bit about the schedule and not having enough days booked in May/June, yet they want to start at noon. If we started at 9am each day instead of noon, we’d gain one of those precious days back every three…

Off to bed.

The worst part I’ve run into is that ProTools demolishes MIDI data when importing it from other applications.  I’ve imported standard MIDI files from numerous other applications only to find the formatting of the tracks and the timelines are so messed up that they’re unuseable.

This section will be where I voice my opinion about Digidesign’s ProTools digital audio recording hardware/software. ProTools has become the industry standard in the recording world. It’s the buzz word everyone always knows.

But in my opinion there are many systems out there which can do what ProTools does, even better. Add that to the fact that you can get these systems for a fraction of what ProTools costs… Customer service? Yeah well i remember calling a 900 number for my ProTools questions, paying $3/minute, being on hold for 47 minutes and then getting asked “did you plug it in?” There goes $150 bucks… But if you have thousands of extra dollars to waste on an overpriced recording system, I guess you can pay $150 bucks to be on hold for 47 minutes.

CAN’T SELECT MULTIPLE MARKERS

I’m editing this book on CD. It’s a 350 page book where the author has read the entire thing. The author has a speech impediment and screws up constantly. So there are over 3000 markers in this ProTools project, each is an edit or fix that needs to be done.

I’ve got the book edited and now I need to get rid of most of the 3000 markers and put new ones in. So about 2800 of the markers need to be deleted. Should be easy, right? Just select a marker, hold down the shift key, then select the end of the group you want to delete….right? WRONG. You can’t select multiple markers in ProTools. You can delete ALL the markers, but you can’t say select 30 of them and delete them, leaving the rest.

I have the choice of deleting all 3000 markers, and losing the 200 I want to keep. Or I can delete 2800 markers, one at a time. Oh you can’t just hit the delete key when you have a marker selected either. You have to select the marker, then use a pull down menu to select “clear marker.” This process would take me close to 10,000 mouse clicks on this project. Is digidesign willing to pay my doctor bill for ligament damage which I’ll incur from clicking my mouse so many times?